Tap Pups - all-cast rehearsals and the show as seen from backstage

What, the show is over?
Now what?

As much as I feel like THIS the day of the show, all butterflies, nerves, adrenaline, and anticipation, afterwards I inevitably feel at loose ends.
But here are some moments and quotes and thoughts...

We'll get the official DVDs when they're ready... but they're always a work of art, so it will doubtless be months before they come out.  Props to Brian and his team also for the graphics work and videos that separated the dances -- interviews and dance clips of each of us.  It's a huge step up from my first show with Vicki, when we had a specific order (that year, by age) to come out between dances and pass the mic to say our name, age, and occupation. 


Quoteable moments:

• Do I throw coal over my near shoulder or my far shoulder?
• The whole shovel!
• Does he dance this way when he's dressed as a pistachio?  (about Psy)
• There's no music for this one?  Yes, acapella means no music.
• I dance by sound.  -Andrea, who helped us review One by dancing along and voicing dah-duh-duh-las instead of ball-change-steps
• Who dances up there?  -Franz, via FB about the scissor lift installing lights in the flies.

And my personal favorite:

• There are no mistakes, just unexpected solos.  -"Not dead yet" Mary

Tech is always fun. Always always always be nice to your techies. I wouldn't want their job! And with a husband and a dad who run sound at a church level, I have utmost respect for the crew. But here's a moment of SAT prep, Tap Pups style.

ONE
For me, this is THE dance.  And when opportunity arose to learn-slash-review it this past winter, a number of "new intermediates" (those that moved up this year or were new to the Tap Pups at Int), jumped at the chance. And then we were told that it was "just for fun", that it wouldn't be in the show, no pressure. And over the course of a month of Saturdays, extra classes, those that knew the dance had brushed it up, and those that were new to it had at least seen every part once. And then it was tabled because there's always so much else to do.

When we got to all-level rehearsals¹ we saw the first posting of tentative show order. And One was on the list.

¹Not full cast; by all-level I mean everyone at a given level. There are multiple B3 classes during a week, multiple Int classes, etc, and we need the all-level rehearsals to work out who dances where, etc.)

Some of us (read: I) hadn't practiced One since January.
But it's ONE.
Some chose to brush up on it from what they knew from last year and reviewed in January.
Some figured they hadn't locked it in from new in January and chose not to dance it in the show.
Some danced it last year but hadn't reviewed it enough to be confident in it.
But for three of us, the opportunity to dance in ONE was worth all the work.
It was glorious. And I don't mind telling you, I was emotional to the point of tears at the tail end of it during the show.

It's One.

Assorted 50s/60s Dances
It should be noted that at least EIGHT assorted dances were CUT from the choreography! Before that we were "requesting" that the video feed of which dance was next be projected to the rear of the auditorium, for our own memory's sake. The way Vicki put this dance together as performed was just fantastic -- and in the show we didn't use a "show shirt", we each put together an outfit, from cat's eye glasses to lettermen's jackets to a Harley jacket to poodle skirts and color, motion, and JOY! Daniel (our photographer this week, but who also has given us Broadway masterclasses) says that the only reason for dance is joy.

Anticipation... "You should be here!"

And finally, Brian taped a bit of the show opening, Wings... you can never bring back the experience, just some of the data from it... but this tiny clip of an all-consuming day was enough to tear me up again.
Official Wings video http://tinyurl.com/TapPupsLiveOpen

EDIT: Some video clips removed from blog post.